LEVY: The “Baroque Cycle” is nearly 3,000 pages of historical fiction, brimming with new ideas. Who’s going to read all this? STEPHENSON: It’s a big planet. Even if the vast majority have short attention spans and won’t like this book, there are lots and lots who are more than happy to read big, long epics that they can lose themselves in. The publishing industry knows who those people are, and it’s pretty good at reaching them....
Military brass have been far less tolerant since then, and women have borne the brunt of the crackdowns. No statistics exist to prove or disprove the widespread perception that there are a higher percentage of lesbians than gay men in the military. But servicewide, women are three times more likely to be investigated and discharged for homosexuality-six times more likely in the Marine Corps. Curiously, though, women have been largely left out of the debate over lifting the ban on homosexuals....
It’s not that the president has changed, so much as sentiment about him has. He’s begun his term much the same way he ended his campaign, preaching parsimony and political compromise. But his repeated pledges to honor Brazilian debts, fight inflation and plump up the budget surplus, if necessary, finally seem to have made a mark. “You sound like a Republican,” exclaimed George W. Bush when Lula called on him last month....
Lift Me Up, Rihanna’s first new song in six years, will be the lead single on the movie’s soundtrack, and the song is reportedly heard during the film’s end credits, along with All The Stars by Kendrick Lamar and SZA. Rihanna’s boyfriend of two years, musician A$AP Rocky, accompanied her to the premiere of the movie at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Cameras snapped the pair as they walked the red carpet together and shared a kiss, much to the delight of Rihanna’s stans on social media....
His story is one of many that Congress will hear as it considers the re-authorization of S-CHIP, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, which provides federal money to subsidize health care for kids who would otherwise be uninsured. Pioneered 10 years ago by former First Lady Hillary Clinton as a fallback when her more ambitious plan for universal coverage failed, the program is a huge success. Yet more than 9 million children are still without insurance....
Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT) kicks off their 2017 Malaysia Cup campaign with a home game at Tan Sri Hj Hassan Yunos Stadium where they will take on Sarawak on Tuesday night. The two teams were last drawn together in the 2015 Malaysia Cup and JDT had already faced Sarawak in the Super League and won earlier this season. Both teams won their respective Super League matches at the weekend and should come into this match in good spirit and form....
Nike finds itself in such a predicament. Chinese sneaker company Qiaodan Sports makes hundreds of millions of dollars selling knock-off Air Jordan sneakers. Due to a loophole in Chinese law, the brand, which has an estimated 6,000 locations, is able to operate legally, Sole Collector reports. MORE: Jordan Brand legacy collections | MJ told Macklemore he hated his shoes In 1990, the first year Air Jordans were sold in China, Jordan only registered the English version of his name....
In this article, we hook you up with some of the best After Effects tutorials that are perfect for beginners; they will help you focus on one thing at a time. We’re going to cover the basics, like the dull yet essential know-how of creating a composition, but some of these tuts will also spoil you with some fun and creative editing ideas. Let’s jump right in! 1. Vivian Shae’s How to Use After Effects If you’ve downloaded After Effects in the hopes of becoming a viral aesthetic editor, this is for you....
Get inspired to tidy up your space with these 3D printing projects and don’t be afraid to remix the designs to your exact measurements. 1. Modular Drawer Organizer Let’s start simple with a sleek-looking modular drawer organizer made up of border pieces and dividers that snap into place. You can download all the files from the Thingiverse project page. The files are good to go as they are in STL format, or they can be edited using either OpenSCAD or the Thingiverse Customizer....
Although it’s restrictive, the paleo diet can give people more energy and help with weight loss and heart health. These websites and blogs will help you find resources and recipes if you want to try the paleo diet or expand your paleo palate. 1. Nom Nom Paleo The Nom Nom Paleo website is run by Michelle Tam, who some call the Queen of Paleo Cooking. She certainly seems to do it all, as her website is full of amazing advice, recipes, cookbooks, and meal plans you can follow along with using a meal planning app....
RELATED: 10 Mistakes Everyone Makes While Playing Among Us For the uninitiated, Social Deduction games are those that give players the objective of working together to identify a deadly spy or traitor, with both sides using clever questioning and debating tactics to survive. Though there are several comparisons to be made between Among Us and some of its precursors, tabletop games can be equally intriguing for fans. 9 Werewolf Originally published in 1986 as Mafia, Werewolf employs many elements of horror and folklore to keep players interested....
You might not be on a call or on a project deadline, but that doesn’t mean that there’s nothing productive that you can do. These downtimes are the perfect time to catch up on little tasks that you might usually put off until they get out of hand. 1. Actually Read Those Newsletters Chances are, you get a lot of newsletters. Chances are, sometimes you get to these, and sometimes you don’t....
Here are the best tips to help you make the most out of the People album in Photos on your iPhone. 1. Create New People Albums iPhone tends to automatically create a new People album for faces that appear often in your gallery. In the case that it fails to do so, you can create a new People album for that person. Follow these steps to make a new album:...
If she’s a co-worker, maybe you could help her with a project. Offer to do a task that she doesn’t really enjoy doing. Stick with jokes that aren’t at anyone’s expense. She won’t think well of you if you’re telling jokes that hurt someone else’s feelings. Giving compliments also shows that you’re not completely wrapped up in yourself. If she thinks you’re rude, saying nice things might be enough to change her mind....
Use freshly purchased chocolate. Chocolate suffers in flavor and texture when stored too long, especially if it’s the real deal. For detailed chocolate artwork, use a thin dipping or coating chocolate. Oil-based food coloring is best used for light colors, since too much of the coloring can add a bitter taste and stain mouths. [2] X Research source These food dyes are more concentrated than liquid dyes. They will stain clothing, skin, and countertops....
The island nation’s four-man team’s appearance at the 1988 Winter Olympics inspired the heartwarming 1993 Disney movie Cool Runnings—but now one of the real-life team’s founding members insists there’s no need for a sequel if Hollywood ever decides to make one. “My personal opinion is that Cool Runnings shouldn’t be remade, it should be left as it is,” Dudley ‘Tal’ Stokes said in an essay for Newsweek. “I do think a sequel should be considered, but it would have to be a creative team to craft the right story, and a producer who has a diversity of experience and can pull together something that is worthy of the original,” he said....
In the first five days of this new year, there have already been three separate attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq. The first, on Jan. 3, involved two fixed-wing “suicide drones” of unknown origin targeting the Diplomatic Support Center. The C-RAM air defense system that protects this facility, where U.S. military advisers are based, was activated immediately, shooting down the drones before they could reach impact. The second attack, on Jan....
The Black Caps may dispute the appraisal, pointing to the goof-up of the third umpire who the ICC felt “followed the correct protocol, but made an incorrect judgment”, in the historic day-night Adelaide Test when they were well placed. They are looking forward to the return Tests at home next month to prove that they are not as bad a side as they are made out to be. India have had some spectacular victories in One-Day Internationals (ODI) in Australia, but these are few and far between and precisely the reason they are well documented and remembered....
Cheap gags, to be sure. But with them Konishiki has gone from being a controversial outsider to Japan’s best-loved pitchman. The crusty old men who rule sumo once rejected Konishiki for their highest honor. One of them even suggested that foreigners lack the hinkaku, or integrity, to become grand champions of Japan’s national sport. But sumo is changing, and Japan is changing even faster. Today no one questions the integrity of Konishiki, 35, who grew up as Salevaa Atisanoe in Hawaii before coming to Japan to wrestle in 1982....
North Korea has been thumbing its nose at China for years, but what was once an irritation for Beijing is becoming a matter of serious concern. Since last October, Pyongyang has gone from restarting its mothballed nuclear facilities to bragging about reprocessing 8,000 spent nuclear-fuel rods into weapons-grade plutonium–enough to build at least half a dozen bombs. As North Korea has turned up the heat, the United States and other regional powers have implored Chinese leaders to talk some sense into Pyongyang....
